388 Zoology. 



red colour began to appear again, and spread over the spaces 

 it had before occupied. On striking the earth again, it dis- 

 appeared in a similar manner, and then reappeared a second 

 time. The experiment was several times repeated, with the 

 same results. The proprietor said that no one had given 

 any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. I was, 

 however, immediately convinced that the substance which 

 produced the colour was of an animal, and not of a vegetable, 

 nature; and I had no doubt that it was some species of 

 minute radiated animal, that sent forth its red tentacula like 

 the sea anemone. If the botanic garden at Bury be still in 

 existence, perhaps some of your correspondents may have an 

 opportunity of examining, with more attention, an appearance 

 so unfrequent in fresh water. — R. B. 



With sincerest deference to R. B., the occurrence of this 

 animal is far less " unfrequent " than the above remarks sup- 

 pose ; as it may be found in most drains where mud has accu- 

 mulated, and over which a slowly flowing stream of partially 

 impure water passes. This is the character of the canal or brook 

 in the above botanic garden ; and although a new site for the 

 garden has recently been chosen, there is next to no doubt of 

 the permanence of this brook (the river Linnet is its histo- 

 rical name, it being a tributary of the river Lark, into which 

 it falls at the northern extremity of the old botanic garden) ; 

 because it is a prescriptive watercourse, or sewer, connected 

 with the drainage of a part of the town to the south. Speci- 

 mens of the animal, therefore, can, as suggested by R. B., be 

 procured from this particular habitat ; but, in truth, there is 

 no need to apply there for specimens, as they will be found 

 in all places of the above character. In the end of February, 

 1832, 1 had the pleasure to observe numerous clusters of them 

 in a small ditch or drain in which was some almost stagnant 

 water ; not quite half a mile from the end of Oxford Street, 

 on the Bayswater Road. They would still have been there, 

 as the animal scarcely possesses (so I believe) locomotion, 

 although highly capable of exserting and withdrawing its ten- 

 tacula, but for the rage for perfect drainage which the appre- 

 hensions of cholera have recently occasioned. The writer of 

 these remarks has the honour of Mr. Hodson's personal ac- 

 quaintance, and remembers that Mr. Hodson, jun., who was, 

 in 1828, residing at Cambridge, sent thence to his father the 

 following extract from a London newspaper, asking, at the 

 time, if the animal described was not, without question, iden- 

 tical with that occurring in the Linnet, in the Bury Botanic 

 Oarden. — J. D, 



Fresh-water Polypus. In the shallow ditches in the vici- 



